in all the world there is no one else exactly like me everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone chose it I own everything about me my body my feelings my mouth my voice all my actions whether they be to others or to myself I own my fantasies my dreams my hopes my fears I own all my triumphs and successes all my failures and mistakes because I own all of me I can't become intimately acquainted with me by so doing I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me and other aspects that I do not know but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me however I look and sound and whatever I say and do and what ever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me if later some parts of how I looked sounded thought and felt turn out to be unfitting I can discard that which is unfitting keep the rest and invent something new for that which i discarded I can see hear feel think say and do I have the tools to survive to be close to others to be productive and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me I own me therefore I can engineer me I am me and I am okay VIRGINIA SATIR

Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die.